It's about time I update this thread!This car has been in sort of a holding pattern while I go through the motions of trying to figure out the best way to send my Mitsubishi back to the states. I'm finally making some serious headway on that so the Cosmo clawed its way back onto my priority list.

I moved some parts around in my garage and made room for a few new pieces. The first of which was the transmission.

The next part to get moved in was the original L10A engine. This thing is in need of some serious cleaning. I can't wait to crack it open and see if it is running the original, 3 side seal rotors or not.

The diff also made its way back to my place.

Along with the rear axle.

Then I made my way up to Classic Car Nagoya with a camera and snapped a few pictures.

The body is in getting the final applications of putty to completely smooth out any waves there might be in the metal. This thing will look like liquid when it's finished.

The interior is getting a full paint treatment as well as any and all rust was completely removed from every nook and cranny. When finished, it should be better than it was when it left the showroom floor.

The roof is where wetsanding has started and it's already smoother than my Bellett. I hope someday I have as much skill as these guys.

Man that's a tight engine bay. I can see why Jay Leno had such a hard time fitting a 12A in there.

I can't wait to see this car with some paint on it, it's going to look amazing!

Thanks for the comments guys! Hopefully this will get into high gear soon and I'll be updating this thread more and more!

Thanks for the comments guys!Derek, if you don't mind me asking, why is that particular shot your favorite?

I was back up at CCN this weekend and checked up on the progress. The pictures this time were taken with a combination of the CCN shop camera and my cell phone, so the quality will be no where near as nice as those last pictures I took.

Hide-san had finished up a all the wetsanding when I came in that morning, so I had to snap a few pictures of places I thought were awesome. Particularly, this edge. Usually, not much attention is paid to an edge that is covered up by the door, but, I mean, just look as how smooth and perfect that curve is now!

The character line down the side of the car has been smoothed out to perfection as well.

The front fender was looking mighty fine too. This is another example of a lot of work being put into an edge that would usually get looked over.

After Hide-san had smoothed it all down, he sprayed on another few coats of surfacer. Man it looks good all in one solid color.

Once your eyes are no longer distracted by differently colored body filler you can really see the lines of the car.

The plan from here is wet-sand this surfacer to flatten any slight waves that might be left and then spray another coat of surfacer on top of that and then wet sand it all again.

Hide-san has more patience than I ever would and I think the results will really speak for themselves.

As this was a shop car before we picked it up, one of the things I did get to help with was welding on new steel to the bottom of the front fenders. We removed the whole front end, Sugi-san cut off the rusty bits, replicated them perfectly in new steel and then I operated the spot welder while he held everything in place. So, interestingly, before I ever even had an inkling that this might become something I could work on intimately in the future, I was already helping out with some of the body work.

I particularly love this look out across the top of the fenders.

Look how smooth that roof is!

Hide-san said the plan as it stands is to have the surfacer wet-sanded, sprayed and wet-sanded again by next weekend. Then it's time for color!

I can't wait to see it with some color on it. It's going to look stunning!

Beans, I was back up at CCN this weekend and am here to give you a bit of a teaser as to the color! Hide-san finished up the majority of the wetsanding and pulled out some color for the inside bits.

You can see that he hit the entire trunk area as well as the weatherstripping run. He also sprayed the entire interior.

Along with the engine bay.

It was hard to capture the color in the garage with the doors closed, so I snapped a few more photos with the flash on.

I'm excited to see it with some true color on the exterior. Hide-san says he should be spraying color and clear this week sometime, so hopefully by next weekend I'll have some truly exciting photos to post up!

I kinda thought it would be this colour but asked just in case you planned to do something else.

I had the pleasure of visiting the Mazda Museum earlier this year and saw the collection they had on display, the cosmo looks more modern than some of the cars that came after it! I also remember finding a fully restored cosmo in the wild when I was living in Hokkaido a couple years ago. It was one of those days where I had been driving around looking at rural japan and enjoying the winding hills roads in my legacy GT when I rolled past a panel beaters and spotted a cosmo peaking out! it was like a dream come true! So I ventured in, they had another on a rotisserie having the rust cut out. here is a couple shots as I am sure you probably collect pics of your type of ride as we all seem too.

A fluke sighting at 60km/h. I stopped in a hurry!

spot my yellow LE GT legacy in the background still on the road as I got out in shock camera in hand!!

And you've gone one better and found one to purchase!!! Looking forward to seeing it progress!

Thanks for the comments everyone! And thanks for the photos beans, I love spotting random cars hiding out, it's one of the best parts about cruising around Japan. Here, you're never very far away from some awesome metal just hiding out.

Camshaft and Lo, not sure what the color is called, most likely it's a Hide-san special. I went for the standard white the Cosmos came in instead of going for a Cream White like on the Mitsubishi, but when Hide-san mixes a color it's all done by hand and so each car is going to be a slight bit different.

Speaking of Hide-san, he got to work stripping the paint off of the hood and trunk.

Now, there was a very good reason that he was working on this instead of the body and that reason is that the body has color on it! I was so excited I commandeered the shop camera and snapped a few pictures of it outside.

The day was seriously overcast and you can't really get a good idea of the color, but man did it look clean.

It looks absolutely fantastic in the flesh!

Just look at how smooth and clean that roof is!

I can't wait to get some lights in here and pop the covers back on.

The rockers on both sides look absolutely perfect.

The edges that Hide-san worked so hard on to really make right came out looking amazing. Probably better looking than the factory.

I went back the next day with a better camera and grabbed a few more pictures of it under artificial light to see if I could get a better view of the color.

It truly does look liquid.

So clean you could eat off it (but then you'd have to answer to me for dirtying the car up)!

I'm thoroughly pleased with the job they've done.

They still need to wet sand it back and then buff it, which means it'll only look better and better from here on out!

Needless to say, I'm pretty excited to see it in color. There's still quite a bit to do as the trunk, hood and doors still need paint. Then the entire car needs to be wetsanded back and buffed. Finally, before it gets delivered to me I'm going to have them install the front and rear glass as well. It's going to take a bit, but that's alright as I'm still struggling to make enough space in my garage for it.